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To find your next pair of glasses, sunglasses, or contact lenses, or to find the Warby Parker store nearest you, head over to warbyparker.com. That's warbyparker.com. It is Friday, April 25th. Here's what's happening right now on CNN This Morning.
If I'm president, I will have that war settled in one day, 24 hours. Turns out solving a war in one day is not so easy. President Trump's behind the scenes frustration with brokering peace between Russia and Ukraine. Plus, new overnight, China's quiet rollback of some tariffs. Is this a sign that Beijing is ready to make a deal?
And lawyers for the man accused of killing four Idaho college students said the death penalty should be off the table. But what did the judge have to say? Plus this. I knew Beyonce didn't have a choice. This is what she was born to do. Tina Knowles opens up from what it's like to be Beyonce's mom to growing up in Texas during segregation.
It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. I'm bringing you a live look at Vatican City where it's noon. Mourners there are paying their respects to the late Pope Francis ahead of his funeral, which is being held tomorrow. The church closed for just one hour last night to allow more people time to say goodbye.
Good morning, everybody. I'm Adi Cornish. I want to thank you for waking up with me. Today could be a big turning point in the push to end Russia's war on Ukraine. So U.S. Special Envoy Steve Wyckoff is expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. And this comes after Russia launched its deadliest wave of attacks on Kyiv since last summer. And President Trump says he is not happy about that. Remember, he promised to end the war on day one of his second term.
That is a war that's dying to be settled. I will get it settled before I even become president. In 24 hours, that war will be settled. It'll be over. You said you could end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. Yes, I could. How would you do that? I know Zelensky very well.
Now almost 100 days since he took office, sources say the president has privately conceded. Ending this war has been more difficult than he expected, his frustrations appearing to boil over. Yesterday he posted this directly addressing Putin, telling him to stop the strikes on Ukraine.
Joining me now to discuss CNN senior reporter Isaac Dover, president and executive editor of The Daily Signal, Rob Luey, and Democratic strategist Antoine Seawright. Welcome, group chat. I want to start with you, Isaac, because I kind of feel like whenever Witkoff shows up,
that's when the conversation is more serious, not to be dismissive of the Secretary of State. But what message or how are you thinking about how this White House
is having to reframe its foreign policy wins. - Well, look, we'll see if it is more serious when Steve Witkoff shows up. The last time I think that he was going to meet Vladimir Putin, Putin left him waiting for hours in what seemed like a sort of power move from Putin.
we keep hearing from Trump that this is when we need to get things settled, that we're running out of time to do it, and then there's more time and there's more time. And as we were saying, there's CNN reporting from yesterday from our colleagues said that President Trump has been saying behind the scenes that it's been harder than he realized to get this war settled. I think most people going into thinking about what these negotiations are going to be like and thinking about how Putin approaches things
are not surprised that it's been complicated. Yeah. But I think we started the month being like, whoa, look, Middle East deal? Could it happen? You know what I mean? Like, whoa, look, Ukraine? We're talking rare earths. And here we are. The month is not out. There's a reason, perhaps, why the Middle East has been for 70 plus years not settled, right? Really?
- Rob, I don't mean to be fishy. These are questions that have always been difficult. The implication is they were somehow not difficult. Antoine, I wanna bring you in as well. How are you thinking about this? - Well, I'm hoping that Donald Trump realizes what an evil man Vladimir Putin is based on this latest attack and that Russia is the aggressor here in Ukraine. At the same time, I think that he recognizes that Zelensky probably has to give some ground as well. I mean, both sides are going to have to compromise if you're going to reach some sort of a truce and peace deal. In terms of Trump wanting to get things done,
this was obviously on the list of the first 100 days that he wanted to show progress and so he has to be frustrated and disappointed. - I can't think of a more ineffective thing to say. Wall Street Journal pointing out then Vladimir stop. Like if that worked,
You know what I mean? I think U.S. foreign policy would look a little different. Antoine? - Part of Trumpism, the strategy has been over-promise, under-deliver. And I think that's reflective of what we see here in this scenario. - That's not an aim for the moon, fall among the stars situation. - And by the way, I think he misses day one deadline with all due respect. But here's the deal. I think it is important for members of Congress
and the president in a bipartisan way to show that we are standing by Ukraine. I think Putin's power grab exercise is bigger than this moment. I think it's bigger than Donald Trump. This is a long-term play, and I think the United States has to stand firm in this moment. But what's clear is Putin does not fear Trump.
There's an old adage, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words do not matter. In this case, words do not matter. And that's because Trump has... Hold on one second. It's not just the, I think, Trump himself. But I want to play you some sound from a Ukrainian parliament member who claims that Ukraine wants the war... Sorry, a Ukrainian parliament member on the war. And here's how they're seeing it.
I've read multiple comments on Twitter and other social media from people who are closer to Trump ideologically, who are all saying that it's all Ukrainians who want this to continue. And it's just impossible to accept that people truly believe that, that people truly believe that I like hiding in the bathroom or in the corridor in the shelter with my son when I'm hearing drones flying over my house.
Because Trump is not just somebody out there wanting to talk about Ukraine. Like, there's a constellation of people and massive shift in the party that think of it differently. Oh, sure. There definitely is. And I think that there was... There's not bipartisan consensus that we should help Ukraine. There was frustration among Republicans, particularly because there seemed to be a blank check coming from Washington without a strategic end to how this ultimately resolves.
during the Biden administration. I think what you see, the change that you've seen in Washington is Trump has said, we're not going to continue to fund this war. We want to bring it to an end because as that you heard from that, that member of parliament, people are dying every day. We shouldn't want this to continue. I think that that's actually the main point here is that we can think about this as, oh, did Trump deliver on the promise? But this is a real life thing for people every single day. And that escalated in the midst of the negotiations. Putin sent
missiles further into Ukraine and that has to have shaken up European allies. Sure, and the same is true with the failure so far to get the deal in Israel and Gaza that has happened. There are people who continue to die and I think we often get caught in the political back and forth of this. Who's on this? Who's that? But this is...
where Donald Trump has put himself forward to the country and the world as the consummate deal maker and it's
It's much harder than people thought. Okay, group chat, stay with us because we're going to have some reporting on this. We also have a couple other topics to talk about. In fact, coming up on CNN this morning, an arrest in those wildfires in New Jersey. What the suspect is accused of doing that led to thousands of burned acres. Plus, if you're looking for a new business venture, why, you can now buy FireFest. And yelling in disruptions, voters angry with their lawmakers. Can this energy be harnessed?
Being angry, being loud feels good, but is it a productive long-term strategy?
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50% site-wide, plus a free professional measure. Blinds.com. Rules and restrictions may apply. If you're getting ready, it's 15 minutes past the hour, and here's your morning roundup, some of the stories you need to know to get your day going.
A judge in Idaho is keeping the death penalty on the table in the capital murder case against Brian Koberger. He's accused of killing four college students in 2022. Now, his lawyers argue that the death penalty shouldn't be an option because of a new autism diagnosis. California is now the world's
fourth largest economy, passing Japan. Numbers from the federal government show that the state's GDP reached $4.1 trillion last year. Celebrating the announcement, Governor Gavin Newsom also warned the state's economy is threatened by President Trump's tariffs.
If you've already bought your tickets for Fyre Festival 2, I have some sad and shocking news for you. Spoiler alert, it looks like it's off. Billy McFarlane, the convicted felon behind the disastrous original Fyre Festival, announced this saying he's trying to sell it to the Fyre trademark and its quote "cultural capital," saying this brand is bigger than any one person.
And I want you to see this Roger Goodell and Lil Wayne giving a nod to the Green Bay Packers with their entrance at the NFL Draft. They rode in on bikes. That's a Packers tradition that started in the 1950s when players would ride local kids' bikes to practice. Lil Wayne, of course, lifelong Packers mega fan. He just announced a new collaboration with the NFL ahead of his Carter 5 album drop.
Still to come, after the break, prosecutors made it official they are seeking the death penalty against Luigi Mangione. Will we hear directly from him today?
Plus, what it's like being the mom of one of the world's biggest stars, Beyoncé's mother, sharing her story. Today is the last chance also for the Catholic faithful to see Pope Francis lying in state. Nearly 130,000 people have paid their respects to the late pontiff.
All right, so China may have quietly rolled back the 125% tariff specifically on some U.S.-made semiconductors. That's according to three import agencies in China. In the meantime, President Trump claims negotiations on the overall tariff deal are underway. China says, no, they're not.
-Can you clarify with whom the US is speaking with China? They're saying it's fake news that trade talks are happening. -Well, they had a meeting this morning, so I can't tell you. It doesn't matter who they is. We may reveal it later, but they had meetings this morning.
Covering the region from Seoul, South Korea, senior correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Josh Chen. Good morning, Josh. I want to talk about your reporting first because you've been writing that Xi has been preparing China for a showdown with the U.S., for example, tightening the screws on censorship and surveillance systems there. Can you talk about why and what else he's been doing?
Right. Well, this dates back to the first trade war that China had during the first Trump administration in 2018. Basically, since then, Xi Jinping has been convinced that the U.S. wants to contain China, wants to suppress China. And he's been telling his officials to prepare for an extreme, extreme scenarios, essentially a confrontation with the U.S. And so he's been he's reorganized the government. He's packed the leadership of people who have
experience in domestic security, sort of keeping things under wraps. And then he's also been investing a lot in building out the censorship system and surveillance systems to make sure that if anything happens in China, you know, the party will be able to stay in control. And
- In terms of dissent, right. I wanna talk about here in the US, Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell said that his constituents are actually pretty heavily dependent on international trade. He was weighing in on who will be hurt by tariffs. Take a listen to this. - I think it's important for everyone to understand that a trade war is ultimately paid for by taxpayers, by regular voters. The cost impact
every day. In the U.S., we've been talking about our pain threshold, right, like as consumers. But in China, can you talk about the calculus there? Trump stays the course with this 145% tariffs on Chinese goods.
But if he does stay the course, he actually could cause quite a bit of pain in China. During the first trade war, China's GDP growth was around 7%, so pretty high. It's now down to 5%, maybe even lower. The economy is drowning in debt. They're even more expended than they were before. And Goldman Sachs estimates that as many as 20 million factory jobs in China rely on exports to the U.S., so a lot of potential pain.
But in a test of wills, I think Xi's confident that China's paint tolerance is much higher. And that's partly the obvious fact that China doesn't have elections. Donald Trump has to confront the midterms coming up in a couple of years. But beyond that, the Communist Party is just incredibly entrenched in China, and it would take a really huge amount of dissent to shake it loose.
Lastly, what's your read on this back and forth about whether or not negotiations are even happening? Is this like little rollback of U.S. semiconductors on those tariffs, is that proof, indication of some sort of low-level or backdoor negotiation? You know, it's really hard to say at this point. You know, it is possible that they are having low-level conversations.
You know, Trump himself has said he's sort of indicated that he really wants to speak directly with Xi and negotiate directly with Xi. And Xi Jinping, you know, as far as our reporting shows, he's not really willing to do that at this point. He wants he wants sort of lower senior level, but lower level officials to figure that out before he's willing to meet with Trump. He just doesn't want to take the risk of doing that directly. OK, Josh Chin, senior correspondent with The Wall Street Journal. Thank you. Appreciate your time. Thank you.
Ahead on CNN this morning, Congress on recess, which means members are now facing their constituents. Why anger continues to boil over at town halls across the country. Plus, Michelle Obama goes on the record about why she did not attend President Trump's second inauguration. On Love It or List It, the homeowner is always right. Whether I find them a brand new home. I mean, look at this incredible space. Or I use my design background to help them redo their existing house. Welcome home.
Good morning everybody, I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me here on CNN this morning. It's half past the hour. Here's what's happening right now.
Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing a health insurance CEO on the streets of New York, is expected to enter a plea in federal court on charges of stalking and murder. This comes as prosecutors make it official that they will seek the death penalty. Mangione also faces state charges. This morning, the President and First Lady are expected to depart Washington and travel to the Vatican. Tomorrow, they will attend the funeral for Pope Francis.
The Trumps met the late pontiff in 2017, the First Lady describing that experience as one she would never forget. And today, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, as the U.S. continues to press for a ceasefire in Ukraine. Russia's foreign minister says his country is ready to reach a peace deal and that talks with the U.S. are moving in the right direction.
But President Trump says he's not happy with Putin and is urging him to stop the escalated attacks on Ukraine. This comes after one of the deadliest strikes on Kyiv since last summer. Ukraine says at least 12 people were killed and 90 others injured. President Trump says things will happen if the strikes continue, but he did not specify what that would be.
Putting a lot of pressure. You don't know what pressure I'm putting on Russia. They're dealing. You have no idea what pressure I'm putting on Russia. We're putting a lot of pressure. Joining us live from London, CNN's chief international security correspondent, Nick Payton Walsh. Good morning, Nick. First, I want to talk about expectations. This conversation with Steve Witkoff, potentially a face-to-face with Putin today. What's expected?
Yeah, I mean, look, it is clear that this peace deal seems to be evolving. On Wednesday in London, a downgraded meeting with, meant to have the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at it, but ended up having lower level officials. That seems, according to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy,
to have developed a document that went to Donald Trump and may well clearly be part of Witkow's discussions with Putin later on today. And indeed we heard from Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, the idea that they want to reach a deal, just certain things need to be fine-tuned.
in a recent interview. So an issue here really that the nature of this process, Witkow going to see the Russians, separate discussions with the Ukrainians and the Americans, makes it by nature very time consuming. It was meant to be about speeding this up but ultimately they're now exchanging documents trying to find a middle ground. Is it likely that today we'll hear in Moscow a sudden solution is found? I don't think so. There's a lot of a gulf between what the Ukrainians will accept and what the Russians want.
The pressure that Trump says he's putting on Moscow, unclear. He went on to say that the concession Russia's making is they're not taking all of Ukraine. Well, that isn't something militarily likely at this point. Or do I should point out, you know, hour by hour, day by day, the violence continues. Two nights ago, we had 12 now killed in a rather remarkable barrage of missile strikes across Ukraine by Russia.
Three killed overnight recently as well. This is the daily way in which Ukrainians endure Russian aggression at the moment. But also on the flip side now, we heard that Donald Trump said to Vladimir, stop, as a result of those missile strikes. On the flip side now, Russian authorities saying that a senior Russian general, the deputy chief of the main operational directorate, Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskaryk,
has been killed in an explosion what seems to be outside of his home. Some videos circulating there showing a car detonating very close to that particular general and what looks like, I think it's fair to say, a targeted killing here. I'm sure many fingers will point in a particular direction for that and it may in turn add to the notion that peace is hard while this level of violence continues. So much of Russia's missiles hitting civilians. I should point out here this particular
particular killing appears to have killed Moscow kick alone by himself so a lot still to be learned about that incident in Moscow but the timing of it with wickhoff arriving I'm sure bound to potentially upset an atmosphere that Donald Trump has hoped will be conducive to an imminent agreement he said he had a deadline just yesterday but he didn't say what it was and I think that's kind of key and it's clearly a very fragile situation CNN's Nick Payton Walsh thank you so much
So a federal judge blocking key parts of a Trump executive order that would expand the requirement for proof of citizenship for voter registration. The judge said, according to the Constitution, the executive branch can't do this. She says only the states and Congress can regulate federal elections. Group chat is back to talk about this. For you, Isaac, what was notable about this moment? Well, look, it's kicking it to Congress. And in Congress, you have the SAVE Act being debated. The SAVE Act is a law
law that would change a lot of what the requirements are to be able to vote. It's the one that it's about ID and the questions about women, whether they've changed their names and how that would... And look, what we know is that there is an effort to, some would say, secure the election, some would say to limit the number of people who are voting, but to change how voting
has been done in this country. And that'll probably affect elections. And this is also the seeds of so much what we call conspiracy theories, but also because of the last 10 years post-COVID, there has been such a wild ride of voting regulation at the states, in Congress,
because of the pandemic, then changing those rules. Antoine, what do you make of the judge stepping in here though and saying, look, it is a Congress thing, it is a state's thing? Well, I'm glad the rule of law prevailed and I'm glad this judge stepped up to solidify what most Americans know to be true about how we conduct business in this country when it comes to election. And I'm so thankful that democratic groups
stepped up to the plate to file this lawsuit, otherwise we would have been going down a very dangerous path in terms of trying to rewrite the playbook when it comes to elections. Voter suppression has become an electoral strategy for Republicans since the 2008 election, historic election of President Obama. We've seen election after election, they try at the state level and the federal level to limit how many people and who can participate.
I would just say, and let's not forget that it was Nancy Pelosi who wanted to federalize elections with H.R. 1 when she was in charge of the House, so it's not that Democrats haven't tried a strategy of their own on this. When it comes to the SAVE Act, I think it's a common sense proposal that overwhelmingly Republicans have supported. Only four House Democrats voted for that bill. You would need seven Democratic senators to support that, to get it across the finish line into President Trump's desk. That's a high hurdle for Republicans to achieve. However, I hope they continue to put the
pressure on. For me, every one of these cases is a point in a constellation that is about power. Is this Congress's thing? Is this the president's thing? And the president has been so aggressive about expanding executive power. But it's also a situation where we just don't have a lot of examples ever of voter fraud. We have a lot of talk of voter fraud and a lot of attention to voter fraud and all these laws that are
or executive orders also that are meant to address voter fraud. And yet what is definitely the case is it is a question of who gets to vote and how they get to vote. All right, this conversation is going to continue, as you mentioned, with the SAVE Act and other things going on in states. Going off script for a second, because heads up, Mother's Day is in two weeks. Don't be that person that has to buy supermarket carnations at the last minute. Isaac, is that you? No.
No, I mean, I thought going off script was going to be about buying the Fyre Festival. Oh, OK. No, it's actually about a new book that is a celebration of motherhood. It's out right now by Tina Noll. She's the mom to Grammy winners Solange and Beyonce. And thanks to her style, her social media savvy,
internet mother to the rest of us. She has a memoir out now called Matriarch and our very own Sarah Seidner, who I am jealous of, got to talk to her about it. Sarah, obviously this has been kind of a cultural event, partly because I would say that Beyonce is famously private, Tina Knowles way more revealing on social media, et cetera. So what does she talk about in the memoir?
Look, it really is the story of black Americans, the descendants of slaves. It's the story of America, but seen through her eyes and her family's eyes. And it's deeply personal, but it is very much also about the matriarchs of the family. And she goes back several generations. Her great grandmother was a slave. Her grandmother born to a slave. Her mother, she talks about her extensively and how she sort of lived
in fear for her children because Tina Knowles grew up in segregated Galveston, Texas, and you know the history there. But she talks about how her family embraced things that back then were shunned. People were ostracized because of the way that some of her family members were. And I want you to hear how she talks about that. I imagine my great-great-grandmother, who was a slave...
sewing and making people look great because my mom always said to To me and my nephew, you know, if you can make beautiful clothes for people your people will always love you They won't be mean to you. They'll be nice to you. And you know, my nephew was gay so and Kind of ostracized sometimes but my mom was like that will save your life you'll never be broke and you people will always like you because you can sew and
You talk about, that's Johnny, right? That's Johnny. Is that the same Johnny that Beyonce is singing about? Oh, absolutely. Okay, I just, I put that together when I read the book, but I was hoping I was right. Yeah. Your family did not ostracize him. No, my family didn't at all. You were cool with gay before gay was cool. And we didn't know it. Like, we were progressive in that his mother, that was her favorite child.
So because we treated him well other people knew they had to treat him well plus it was a bunch of us Yeah, so if you fought one you had to fight the crew so that protected him a lot too and he How important was he to a family and the aesthetic of the family? He was the nucleus really of the family
And anyone who was a Beyonce fan knows about Uncle Johnny because she sang Uncle Johnny Made My Dress on the Renaissance album. And so I was just enthralled in that part of the story in a time when, you know, segregation was very much in place. And you and I both know well, you know, people who came out as gay at that time could very well be killed.
just for being who they are. So it was fascinating to sort of hear this different stories that existed within her family, as well as she gives you the timing of all of this. So what is happening kind of in the world as well. It is a really wonderful.
book, Audie. Yeah, and it's unusual because I think that people are interested in, you know, her revelations about her breast cancer battle and her revelations about her marriage with Matthew Knowles, who famously had been the early manager to Destiny's Child. But she kind of took a different route, like really leaning into the matriarch part of this and getting into the history.
Yeah. And she does get into, you know, how her troubled marriage, eventually she leaves it. And she part of that was the catalyst for her writing this book. But the big catalyst for her writing this book was that she said, you know what? I realize how important our history was. And, you know, the name Beyonce is actually a last name. And one of the reasons why Tina Knowles chose it is because she's like, there will be no more Beyonce's. I want to make sure this name continues. And boy, will it.
It has, yeah. And of course, all the other young women that she mothered and mentored outside of that family. I think for a generation of pop fans, they have a lot to thank Tina Knowles for. And CNN, Sarah Zeidner, thank you so much. I appreciate it. It's true. Let me just tell you one more tip. Oh, please do. She's so smart.
so many of their outfits when Destiny's Child was in play. - Right, famously, yeah. - The survivor outfits, like she tells the whole story. We've got much more on all of that. A little bit about Beyonce as well coming up in the next eight o'clock, couple hours. - Yeah, well, Sarah, getting the tea on the outfits is the point. I appreciate your investigative reporting on this. Thank you.
Still to come on CNN This Morning, does the name Katara Ravesh ring a bell? No? What about George Santos? The former congressman is set to be sentenced today. Elliott Williams will join me to dig into the week's biggest legal stories. And Eva Longoria is back with an all-new culinary adventure. She explores the vibrant and daring cuisine of Spain one bite at a time. Eva Longoria, Searching for Spain, premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific on CNN.
Hey Club Kondo! It's your favorite, Katara.
After 18 years in the closet, George Santos pulled me back out. I'm not a frog. I'm not a cartoon character. I knew you were trouble when you walked in. He's an embarrassment to our party. He's an embarrassment to the United States Congress. It's reprehensible that the senator would say such a thing to me in the demeaning way he said it. It wasn't very Mormon of him. That's what I can tell you.
Okay, you might be wondering why we're showing a montage of former New York Congressman George Santos, although you might not. He's really good tape, right? He faces his sentencing hearing today on federal fraud charges. So I'm bringing in my friend, CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams, because honestly, you help me figure out all things legal.
And what surprised me in this case is that it's looking like the Justice Department wants a seven year prison sentence to remind people he's not going to prison for hanging out in Rio. It was fraud that he was accused of against voters and like taking their money.
Right, he's not going to jail for being a drag queen or any of that. It's taking people's money and defrauding them. Campaign donors as well. And seven years, you and I were talking just before this. Yeah, I couldn't tell. Is that long, short? It's a federal offense. It's fraud. And even though he has accepted responsibility, which is something that judges consider in deciding how much to give someone, he's gone on these social media tweet storms calling the Justice Department a cabal of pedophiles.
based on the nature of the people he defrauded, based on his knowledge of the offense. Yes, here he is on Matt Gaetz. You may remember Matt Gaetz. He has a show on OANN. And Santos spoke to him about why he thinks the reason is prosecutors would want this sentence.
I have the perspective of always looking at the glass half full. And they look at that as arrogance and as petulance instead of just me being me. And they use that against me at every opportunity. In an unprecedented move, they did it in a filing. I never thought that my Twitter posts would end up in federal court filings like they did last week.
Fun fact, your Twitter posts can end up in a federal filing. Don't tweet through it. Don't tweet through it. Don't post through it. But also don't attack your prosecutors when your acceptance of the responsibility of your crimes is a factor that'll be considered. Also, by being an elected official and abusing a position of responsibility, that's something a court can consider too. I think he's getting a
fairly substantial sentence based on all that. - I have another big story because like everyone I know is talking about this. Shannon Sharp, the ESPN commentator, he's now facing a $50 million lawsuit in Nevada. The woman who claimed the suit, who filed the suit says that the NFL player sexually assaulted and threatened her multiple times.
He is actually stepping away from ESPN and he released this statement. It said, "I will be devoting this time to my family and responding and dealing with false and disruptive allegations set against me. I plan to return to ESPN at the start of the NFL preseason." ESPN weighed in. Gotta add this. This is a serious allegation and we agree with Shannon's decision to step away. Put this in context for me, Elliot, because this is not a criminal case.
And that's a lower, there's a lower. It is a civil suit. It is a civil suit. One party is suing another for intentional infiction of emotional distress and other things. Now, it's a lower standard for getting into court with a criminal, with a civil suit. You're merely saying, hey, court, I believe it is more likely than not that this action happened and it happened to me. Now, this is exceptionally messy. There's text messages, videos or audio recordings. He's also questioning.
critical of the lawyer who's representing the plaintiffs in the suit, who I didn't know. Can you tell me about it? It's the lawyer representing the plaintiffs in the suit, also representing Jay-Z, also representing the accuser, Jay-Z's accuser, Diddy's accuser, Deshaun Watson, another football player's accuser. Shannon Sharpe has made the argument that this is an individual who has a business of shaking down, and as he says it, strong black men.
And so that's coming up here. You know, you're seeing a I'm not going to say he said she said it's sort of a cheap way of putting it, but competing allegations about a relationship that certainly started consensual. Both parties agree. We would just call this a me too case. Yeah. In another era, we would. But that's over now. All right. I want to talk about two things related to the Justice Department first.
Federal prosecutors in New York inadvertently made this filing that undermined their case in New York. It was a case about the congestion pricing, which is not what we're going to talk about now. But then the Department of Transportation in the Trump administration basically yanked them off the case and accused them of legal malpractice.
And then in the meantime, you had DOJ attorneys having their credibility called into question by judges in another case. And I guess I want to talk about that. Like we have seen judges here and there finger wagging at attorneys for the Trump administration. And there has been speculation in the legal community about are the lawyers basically
being put in a bad position or are they actually not good? Once again, the Trump administration has a point to
to a point and where they push it a little bit far. Now, of course, any presidential administration is entitled to have people that can carry out their vision or mission. The presidency changes every four years and the tone of the work that gets done shifts. That's fine. However, any time an attorney steps into court and makes a statement that either he knows to be not supported by law, a case that he thinks he or she thinks they can't win,
or is actually a falsehood, they actually risk their law license. And so these attorneys being put in a position of saying, wait a second, my client, the government, has not prepared me for this and has actually put me in a position of making untruths on the court.
they're breaking from the government there. Now, there's a little bit of gray area because the administration can say, wait a second, no, you're just disagreeing with our position. But in a few of these instances, certainly in the Kilmar-Abrego case, the immigration matter, the attorney went to court and said, I am not prepared to make this statement because if I do, I will not be making an accurate statement on the court. And where we are at that case is the potential for people being held in contempt, right? Because things aren't moving along. Would the lawyers be in trouble in that
They could, depending on the statements they make. The lawyers could. Now, of course, the parties could, whether that's the government or the agencies or the agency head. But certainly a lawyer who is found to have made an untruth when sworn in the court could risk their license. Yeah, it's a strange place to be, though, in between your boss and basically potential defendants. Anyway, Elliot, thank you. You always make sense of things. I appreciate your time. I appreciate you being here this morning.
It's 53 minutes past the hour, morning roundup time. Some of the stories I want you to know as you get your day going. The Vatican giving people more time to pay their respects to the late Pope Francis. St. Peter's Basilica closed for just one hour last night. The funeral is going to be held tomorrow morning. And a suspect has been arrested in connection to the wildfire still spreading across southern New Jersey. That's now 50% contained.
Authorities say the 19-year-old suspect set some wooden pallets on fire and then left before it was out. Michelle Obama is explaining why she notably skipped President Trump's inauguration. In a new episode of her podcast, the former first lady said the reason was pretty simple.
I'm here really trying to own my life and intentionally practice making the choice that was right for me. And it took everything in my power to not do the thing that was right or that was perceived as right, but do the thing that was right for me. That was a hard thing for me to do.
She also did not attend former President Jimmy Carter's funeral, and both absences ended up sparking divorce rumors, another thing that she denies. As the Democratic Party looks to exit the political wilderness in D.C., they're facing angry voters back home demanding they do more. One Democratic congresswoman last night faced boos and heckling over her support for a Republican bill that would change voter laws. You know, 84% of Americans support voter ID.
Now, Democratic Senators Alyssa Slotkin of Michigan is looking at ways to turn that anger into action. Politico reports that Slotkin is now laying out her war plan for Democrats in a new series of speeches, arguing her party is perceived as weak and woke.
group chat is back to take on weak and woke. First of all, everyone having town halls, it never turns out the way they want. Narrator, people are not turning out to support you. But what was interesting about that moment is she was saying, and we had been just talking about this voter legislation, Antoine, she was saying, people support voter ID laws. And then...
Backlash immediately. Why is this such a struggle to have this conversation with constituents right now? - Well, I think that's reflective of the diversity of our party and the diversity of the people showing up at these town halls. We don't know where the booze came from in the town hall, whether they fall on the progressive side, the moderate side, or the conservative side. What we do know is that it's easier to be angry than it is informed. - It's easier to be angry than it is informed. - That was true in the 2024 election. - I hear your mentor Jim Clyburn in that moment.
- And I was shooting this election. But different members, front line members have different constituency they have to answer to in a general election. And I think you'll see that on display as these town halls continue throughout the country. - I like you using the word front line, which in political speak is like the people who actually live in those rare districts that aren't gerrymandered to hell and actually
maybe a chance that you don't know the outcome. Isaac, I want to talk to you because Slotkin coming out with this weak and woke thing, to me what's notable about it is it's yet another person putting forth a roadmap, right? Like someone's got to do it. And so we have a series of speeches coming. Can you talk about this ongoing conversation even around woke?
There's a lot of talk about what is the Democratic Party doing to think that. There is not a Democratic Party that's figuring it out. There are a lot of Democrats who are trying to figure out what this is. Oh, that's a good point, yeah. And so that's what you see. You see Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and their tour around things have a very different view of things than Alyssa Slotkin, Senator from Michigan, does.
All sorts of things. Chris Murphy has been going around doing things. He was in North Carolina yesterday with Maxwell Frost. There's a full range of things. J.B. Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, is going to be in New Hampshire this weekend, by the way, like starting some of that stuff up. Yeah, yeah. It's giving pre-Trump Republican vibes when there used to be like 10 people on stage running for president, right, on the Republican side. There were 27 people who ran for Democrat.
the Democratic nomination in 2020. So we'll see if we can match that. Graphics team, get it ready. We also have this debate between the chair and the vice chair of the DNC about whether to go after individuals. Some of that is overflowing. David Hogg is a notable person who's done a lot of things since he was part of the Parkland Juniors. But he's talking about spending $20 million in primaries in 2026. $20 million is less than 1% of the amount
money. That is a distraction for our party. I think what's important for us to be united on all fronts. Voters do not trust us as a brand right now. That's been true in some of the CNN polling. We need to be unified on all fronts. Certainly an officer of the DNC does not need to position himself in that kind of posture. Let's talk about what we're keeping an eye on.
ahead of this weekend. For me, it's the White House Correspondents' Dinner where there is no comedian, and I'm curious about what I'll be sitting through. But Isaac, tell me. It'll be shorter. Yeah, it better be.
Tell me with our short time left. President Trump is headed to the Vatican for the Pope's funeral. I think it'll be interesting to see what the dynamics are, the other world leaders are with President Trump there. And also whether President Biden, former President Biden, who had a very deep relationship with Pope Francis,
will be there and what that looks like if he is. Nice, nice. Rob Louie. I'm watching the NFL draft. Shutterer Sanders, Deion Sanders' son, was passed over in round one. So where will he go? Which team will pick him? And as a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, I'm certainly hoping that we'll land a quarterback. That makes sense now. I know more about you. Correspondents weekend, no president, no comedian, no entertainment. I'm looking to see what the D.C. bubble media has to say and what the fallout will be. A lot of wine on the table. Yeah, I was about to say, a lot to drink from there.
Thanks to the group chat. Thank you all for waking up with us. I'm Adi Cornish. We've got more news ahead. CNN News Central starts right now.
This week on The Assignment with me, Adi Cornish. This week is the White House Correspondents' Dinner. And needless to say, with the decision to cancel the traditional comedy roast from the program, the vibes are off. What is even funny anymore when it comes to politics? Who gets to decide which comedians are the truth-tellers of the moment? And who's laughing now?
Listen to The Assignment with me, Audie Cornish, streaming now on your favorite podcast app.